The ban helped me: Indian pugilist Sarita Devi

“In a way, the ban helped me as well because I got time to think about my game,” she said, as quoted by Indian Express. “In this one year that I have lost, I have tried to become a more intelligent boxer,” Sarita added. The Indian pugilist feels that due to her age, she cannot go all-out during every bout. “At my age you can’t go dham dham dham all the time. There are younger boxers out there who can also attack all the time. So I have to be a lot more intelligent now,” she said.

Fearing the distance between herself and her son would hamper her performance inside the ring, her husband shifted their house closer to the stadium as a precautionary measure and the Indian pugilist was all praise for that. “In the past I would miss my family and son very much, like any mother would. But now, Thoiba has arranged a flat for us in ITO (near the stadium) itself. He wants to make sure that I never feel any sort of loneliness that would hurt my game. So every weekend, I can simply go over to the flat and meet and play with my son,” the 30-year old said.

This break from the sport has also helped her recover from a ligament injury which she picked up during the Commonwealth Games 2014, and her never-die-spirit pushed her to take part at the Asian Games which aggravated her injury. Sarita said, “Last year because of the ban, I missed the world championships but I can say perhaps it was for the best. If I had continued to box with my injured left hand, I don’t think I would have been in a position to train for the Olympics”.

2016 being an Olympic year, Sarita is more focussed at grabbing a medal in Rio which will also help her thank those who supported her during the turbulent 2014. “I feel that I have to restore the nation’s honour after what happened at the Asian Games. Everyone supported me so much after that, so I feel I have some sort of debt to pay,” she said. But before going to Rio, she has to make it to the Indian squad which will participate in the two Olympic qualifiers – the 2016 World Championships in May and the Asia Oceania qualifiers in Qian’an, China.